The World's Best Strawberry ‘n Cream Cookies
Tanya Bush began baking last year to pull herself out of a pandemic slump. What emerged was a sense of connection and purpose.
On a recent afternoon, my friend Eliza met me for a walk. She was coming from Fort Greene Park, and had picked up some free (free!) cookies from a young woman who was simply just … giving them away. Who can say no to a free cookie? I took one bite and it was divine. Was that strawberry I tasted? And white chocolate chips, all mixed in with a buttery cookie? It was delicious. I wanted more.
Edouard Manet’s Strawberries, c. 1882
Curious, I discovered that the woman giving away free home-baked cookies in the park was named Tanya Bush. She’s a 24 year old graduate student and freelancer living in Brooklyn. She also runs the baking Instagram account Will This Make Me Happy: Anti-Depressant Confections. There, she chronicles her baked goods with dark humor: “No,” reads one caption to a lush, sugary sweet, “Spiced cinnamon rolls with brown-butter cream cheese frosting did not stop me from worrying that I’ll forever remain a mediocre generalist with ‘proficient at excel’ and ‘conversational Spanish’ as my legacy.” I found it fit my mood exactly and I wrote to her and asked her if she’d be willing to share the recipe for the most perfect cookie I had ever eaten, and she agreed. Here it is.
Strawberries ‘n cream cookies by Tanya Bush (my notes in parentheses):
350 grams all-purpose flour (or a little less than 1.5 cups)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature
350 grams of granulated sugar (again, a little less than 1.5 cups)
1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
30ish grams of freeze-dried strawberries (about 3/8ths of a cup)
red food coloring (this is optional, though nice to convey as it’s a less conventional cookie)
lots of white chocolate, chopped (I usually do close to the same amount of flour that I put in, so let’s say 1-1.5 cups! I am a fan of Guittard)
Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Pulverize your strawberries into powder (a food processor or crushing in a plastic bag works well). In another bowl, beat butter on medium until creamy, add the sugar, and beat until pale and fluffy. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla, and beat on medium speed until combined. Add the flour mixture and the freeze-dried strawberries and beat on low speed until just combined. Add a few drops of red food coloring and mix in your white chocolate. Roll into 45g balls and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-11 minutes. Fear not if they are soft out of oven. They harden up after about 15.
I also wanted to ask Tanya some questions about her baking and why she started giving away cookies during the pandemic. She gamely agreed to answer me:
Why did you decide to do this? Did you start Anti-Depressant Confections because of the pandemic?
In the early days of the pandemic there were all these articles about baking as a form of self-care, as an entry point into mindfulness, and I thought: Ridiculous, in what world can bread-making fend off relentless anxiety? I baked bread and I was still upset. But when winter hit, I was feeling especially unmoored and isolated, so I started @will.this.make.me.happy, pairing existential grumblings with florid descriptions of desserts. I was spoofing the idea of baking as panacea (like, no, vanilla bean madeleines with orange zest did not prevent me from offloading my petty grievances onto those nearest and dearest), but it was also an earnest attempt at pulling myself out of a slump.
I was always answering no, so I wondered if sharing my desserts with people in a more embodied way might actually make me happy. I thought a pop-up could be fun. Come enjoy a Sunday with me as winter finally thaws and take home something sweet. The account was meant to distract me while isolating, but happily, I’ve used it as means to meet people.
Where did you learn to bake?
I worked at an ice cream shop/bakery in high school and fell in love with desserts there. I loved the flavor combinations — the ricotta with orange rind and cinnamon, like the inside of a cannoli; the banana anise; the blueberry mascarpone. I food-prepped during my shift and at night I’d bake with all of those combinations in mind.
Last year, I became obsessed with baking again through Tables of Contents, an organization founded by Chef Evan Hanczor, which creates food events inspired by literature. When the pandemic hit, I was running TOC’s Instagram and I started baking things from books to post. I made Victoria sponge cake inspired by A Little Princess and a thick hot chocolate with buttered baguette from Sanaë Lemoine’s lovely novel The Margot Affair. Evan would send me recipes or explain to me certain techniques and I got excited about making my own treats. I started making ice cream again: honeyed peanut butter and chocolate hazelnut. I tend to gravitate towards nostalgic flavors, the stuff of childhood. My strawberries ‘n cream cookie is inspired by rainbow pop tarts, good humor bars, and malted chocolate cake. Sometimes I leave plates outside my neighbors’ doors and ask them what they think, I’ve made new friends that way.
Right now, I’m working on a recipe for s’mores cookies made with actual roasted marshmallows and dark and milk chocolate. I’d like to make ice cream sandwiches with it for the next pop up.
Do you have a favorite cookie?
Before the pandemic hit, I used to buy a black-and-white cookie from the bagel shop every day. It’s the perfect treat, genre-defying, as much a cake or shortbread as it is a cookie. I like the hint of orange or lemon and the way the sugary fondant melts in your mouth and I like that they are either massive or miniature with no in-between.
I’m also a big fan of Gracie’s Baked funfetti cookie. It tastes like the birthday cake I always wanted.
Will you ever sell your cookies?
I don’t know. For now, I like giving cookies to people but I’m not opposed to receiving donations to cover costs in the future.
Why do you think we have all started baking so much in the pandemic?
I think the act of feeding people is really powerful. To see others enjoying something you’ve made is a way of feeling better fed yourself. It’s one of the ways we can feel like we make sense in the world; to feed a neighbor, or lover, or child something sweet is to have acted purposefully, a small success. Let me make your day a little better even if it’s just with a pastry.
On Sunday, April 25th, Tanya Bush will be giving away cookies again in Fort Greene Park (at the picnic tables) from 1 PM to 3 PM.
A cup of flour weighs between 125 and 140 grams, so the 350gm measurement is over 3 cups. A cup of sugar weighs 200gm, so the 1 1/2c is correct.